Category Archives: Miscellaneous

Cross-Functional Tactical Planning Matters

Because if you don’t get tactical planning right, you cannot align cross-functionally, as pointed out in a post over on Supply Chain Shaman by Lora Cecere who said Enough!

So how do you get tactical planning right? According to Laura, you need to address four attributes:

  • Assessment
    Tactical planning aligns functions beyond the enterprise with market drivers and insights using outside-in thinking. It goes beyond a corporate silo.
  • Action
    The team must be knowledgeable and have the authority of line management to act.
  • Accuracy
    Companies need to have access to the right data model and recognize the different value networks because one model does not fit all supply chains. The appropriate risks and opportunities are only identified when tactical options for a strategy are evaluated against market drivers.
  • Timeliness
    Analysis needs to happen within a finite window of actionability.

Then you have to understand the success requirements. According to Laura, to be successful you need to first answer three questions:

  1. What is the goal?
    Good tactical outcomes cannot be reached if the company is not aligned on the strategy. The goal has to be well understood.
  2. What does good look like?
    How are incentives aligned cross-functionally to achieve the goal? The answer is more than rewarding organizations for the same-old same-old.
  3. What are our risks and opportunities?
    Has a proper sensitivity analysis been performed? Has the right data been used?

Once you have the answers, you can start proper planning. Until then, the questions need to be addressed and re-addressed until they are understood.

Have You Lost Your Mojo?

According to a recent article over on Industry Week on “Putting Creativity on the Company Agenda”, Josh Linkner, founder and chairman of ePrize, claims that due to a constant focus on cost-cutting, efficiency gains and top-down control, too many organizations have lost their mojo.

 

Yes, Austin, if true, that’s not a good thing, especially given the ever-increasing arms race for competitive edge. But Linkner is correct about one thing, when the dust settles, the only thing that can’t be commoditized is creativity. So the last thing your organization wants to lose in its quest to become a next-generation supply management organization is its mojo.
So how can your organization get its mojo back if its lost it? Screw up. Seriously. Sometimes a dose of humility is the best medicine.

3 Tips for Better Product Sourcing

A recent article over on Supply & Demand Chain Executive on “The New Product Shape Up” had three great tips that will help any Supply Management department improve its product sourcing efforts. Simply put, these are:

  • Focus on the Differences
    What makes your offering distinct from your competitions and, thus, what are the most important supplier and product/component characteristics to focus on when sourcing. Not everything is relevant — and focussing on the wrong characteristics and/or issues will just help the supplier’s sales person pull the wool over your eyes (with the misdirection ploy).
  • Implement Your Customers’ Ideas, Not Yours
    Don’t start with a supplier solution and end with an end product — start with the end product your organization’s customers want and work back to the appropriate supplier capabilities. And if the customers want something that is more expensive it’s not a problem if they are willing to pay a premium!
  • Conduct Interviews
    Mail, telephone, e-mail, and website surveys are great, but nothing is more informative than actually talking with current and potential customers, especially if they want to talk to you. So get out there and understand what they really want. It will not only make your organization more successful, but knowing exactly what they want will make your job that much easier in the long run.

Is Your Supply Management Organization Ready for Convergence?

According to this recent web exclusive over on CPO Agenda on how “technology creates ever-changing leadership challenges”, 70% of top executives from multinational companies agree that there is a danger in being overwhelmed by the complexity of change as whole industries are transformed by a trend called ‘convergence’.

So what is this convergence? According to wikipedia, it could be technological convergence which is defined as the tendency for different technological systems to evolve towards performing similar tasks. Today’s smart phone is one example. We had a phone, we had a PDA, we had a gaming system, and we had a wifi laptop for browsing the web. Now we have one device that does it all (and, in the case of Apple, an iPhone that puts the one ring to shame).

And it’s happening across the board. Automotive has to build hybrid cars with integrated GPS and satellite internet connectivity. Fashion and Medicine both have to deal with personalization and custom-fit (in the former, the shoe has to be printed exactly to your foot and in the latter, the drug has to be optimized to your DNA). And technology has to adapt to the other systems you have in place. Gone is the time where you could be a master of one thing. Now you have to be a jack-of-all-trades and a master of one. It’s a daunting task, and one you’re probably not ready for as it’s a requirement most of your people probably are not ready for.

But one thing is for certain, the next few decades will prove whether or not we are the most adaptive species on the planet, because if we’re not, the impending global economic collapse could end all of civilization as we know it. Either way, we will live in interesting times and China, which once upon a time was the most powerful civilization in the world, will have its revenge.